A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to articles for securing hair arrangements on the heads of humans. More particularly, the invention relates to a hair clip having a pair of jaws resiliently urged together, for clamping together strands of a woman's hair to maintain a desired coiffure.
B. Description of Background Art
A wide variety of hair clips have been proposed and/or are in use for keeping a woman's hair in aesthetically satisfying and functional arrangements. Typical of such hair clips are those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: Chan, 3,983,887, Oct. 5, 1976, Clip; Yasuda, 4,976,277, Dec. 11, 1990, Hair Clip; Chen, 4,991,607, Feb. 12, 1991, Hairpin; Kuo-Hua, 5,109,878, May 5, 1992, Hairclip; Kuo-Hua, 5,355,899, Oct. 18, 1994, Arched Hairclip; Yasuda, 5,445,170, Aug. 29, 1995, Hair Clip; Healzer et al., D359,144, Jun. 6, 1995, Combined Hair Clip And Garland Retainer.
The following U.S. design patents exemplify a particular type of hair clip which employs upper and lower elongated members that are pivotably joined near the rear ends thereof, the rear ends of the members being urged apart by a spring to cause the inner facing surfaces of the front portions of the jaws to exert a compressive clamping force on hair strands. Thus Park, U.S. Pat. No. D348,121, Jun. 21, 1994, Hair Clip discloses a hair clip of the aforementioned type which has upper and lower jaws, each having a width which is substantially uniform forward of a rear pivot pin joining the jaw pieces. The lower jaw has a slight upwardly convex curvature, while the upper jaw has a long portion having a substantially curved, upwardly convex shape and a short straight front portion. This design limits the effective clamping area of the jaws to a short region rearward of the front ends of the jaws, where the straight portion of the upper jaw contacts the lower jaw. In front elevation view, the contacting areas of the upper and lower jaws have inwardly convex, contacting surfaces.
Kalichlman, U.S. Pat. No. D292,327, Oct. 13, 1987, Hair Clip discloses a clip having upper and lower jaws of substantially uniform plan-view width forward of a pivot joint, with short inwardly tapered front jaw portions. In side elevation view, both upper and lower jaws have approximately the same upwardly convex curvature.
Chao, U.S. Pat. No. D257,792, Jan. 6, 1981, Hair Control Clip discloses a hair clip having upper and lower jaws formed from wire loops, the lower jaw having a uniform width, and the upper jaw having a uniform width substantially narrower than the lower jaw, and slightly longer than the lower jaw. Both upper and lower jaws have a slight upwardly concave curvature.
None of the prior art hair clips known to the present inventor have both a capability for firmly gripping hair strand bundles of widely varying sizes, while still being readily insertible into and removable from a wide variety of coiffures. The present invention was conceived of to provide a hair clip which firmly grips hair strand bundles of various sizes, and which is readily insertable into a coiffure.